author : Eric Frank Russell

Contents (possible spoilers)

• Second Genesis. 1966

• Homo Saps. 1941

Camels on Mars

• First Person Singular. 1950

• The Witness. 1951

• Last Blast. 1952

• The Timid Tiger. 1947

• A Little Oil. 1952

• Rainbow's End. 1951

• The Undecided. 1949

Four linked novellas, featuring Jay Score and the betentacled Martian chess fanatics

Contents (possible spoilers)

• Jay Score. 1941

How Emergency Pilot Jay Score saves the Upskadaska City, and its mixed crew of terrans and chess-loving Martians, after a meteor strike.

• Mechanistria

• Symbiotica

• Mesmerica

EFR had two main themes: pompous authority figures being outwitted by clever subordinates, and entire alien races being no match for a single canny human. Put the two themes together, and you get the classic Wasp.

Humanity is at war with the evil Sirian Empire: we have the better tech, but they have superior numbers. So, to win, we need to do something cleverer than fight them head on. James Mowry, who can pass as a Sirian, is recruited as a "wasp" -- an agent provocateur dropped behind enemy lines with instructions to cause as much mischief as possible. As the leader and total membership of the otherwise fictitious Sirian Freedom Party, Dirac Angestun Gesept, he causes plenty of havoc.

EFR's writing has aged better than many other 1950s authors, possibly because the fight against self-important bureaucrats is ever more relevant, but his style and the humour is a little old-fashioned. Indeed, although EFR is careful to paint this as the Good Guys desperately fighting lots of Very Bad Guys by any means possible, this is rather harder to read as a comedy today than when it was written. Today we are more used to being the victims of psychopathic terrorists than the supporters of heroic resistance fighters; one's first natural impulse is to identify with the Sirians. However, here (most of) the victims are either nasty criminal thugs, or very nasty secret police (basically just a purple-skinned Gestapo -- indeed, compare the names of the Sirian Secret Police, the Kaitempi, and the Japanense Imperial Army's military police, the kempeitai), so the impulse does not last long. In fact, everyone is a bit of a cipher -- even Mowry careers from one incident or crisis to the next.

Yet, as a dig at totalitarianism, and as a resistance fighter's pocket instruction manual, Wasp still makes good reading.

More classic EFR as the human PoW John Leeming uses a piece of bent copper wire to wage psychological warfare on the enemy, with the help of his Eustace of course...

Next of Kin is an expanded form of The Space Willies, 1958, itself based on the short story "Plus X". Unfortunately the good stuff with the Eustaces doesn't start until past half way through the book, the first half (presumably most of the expansion?) being more conventional "individualist space pilot laughs in the face of authority".

Contents (possible spoilers)

• Allamagoosa. 1955

What not to do when you misplace your Offog

• P.S.. 1953

• Legwork

• Diabologic

• The Timeless Ones. 1952

• The Waitabits

Contents (possible spoilers)

• The Sin of Hyacinth Peuch

• With a Blunt Instrument

• A Matter of Instinct

• I'm a Stranger Here Myself

• This One's On Me

• I Hear You Calling

• Wisel

• The Ponderer

• Sole Solution. 1956

• Rhythm of the Rats

• Me and My Shadow

• Bitter End

Contents (possible spoilers)

• Dear Devil. 1950

A lone Martian poet on a post-apocalyptic Earth helps rebuild civilisation. [Makes me cry every time I read it.]

• I am Nothing. 1952

A powerful anti-war polemic

• Somewhere a Voice. 1953

• U-Turn. 1950

• Seat of Oblivion. 1941

• Tieline. 1955

• Displaced Person. 1948

Contents (possible spoilers)

• Allamagoosa. 1955

What not to do when you misplace your Offog

• Into Your Tent I'll Creep. 1957

Why is one of the alien visitors so worried about the gift of two dogs?

• Hobbyist. 1947

• Ultima Thule

• The Mechanical Mice

• Nothing New

• Exposure

Contents (possible spoilers)

• Metamorphosite. 1946

The Lords of Terror, leaders of the great interstellar Empire, encounter a strange lone humanoid

• Mana. 1937

• Jay Score. 1941

How Emergency Pilot Jay Score saves the Upskadaska City, and its mixed crew of terrans and chess-loving Martians, after a meteor strike.

• Homo Saps. 1941

Camels on Mars

• Late Night Final. 1948

Twenty-two spaceships from Huld land and prepare to conquer the planet. Then the natives invite them round for dinner.

• Dear Devil. 1950

A lone Martian poet on a post-apocalyptic Earth helps rebuild civilisation. [Makes me cry every time I read it.]

• Fast Falls the Eventide. 1952

Earth's sun is dying, so humans have to find other homes. How to do this without worrying all the different aliens?

• I am Nothing. 1952

A powerful anti-war polemic

• Weak Spot. 1954

Why doesn't the powerful Empire swat the annoying Barb antagonists?

• Allamagoosa. 1955

What not to do when you misplace your Offog

• Into Your Tent I'll Creep. 1957

Why is one of the alien visitors so worried about the gift of two dogs?

• Study in Still Life. 1959

• Hobbyist. 1947